As tasty morsels go, the Oscar short films category — my annual favorite — is like the box of Russell Stover’s chocolates we bought Mother every Christmas. I’d poke a little hole in the bottom to see if it was a flavor I liked and, if not, furtively replace it, enraging my sister Pamela when she (inevitably) discovered the rejects.
Hoping thumbnail critiques are equally revealing but less transgressive than thumbnail holes, I offer you them below. This year’s overall crop is excellent, if decidedly more downbeat than usual.
Animated shorts
• “Bear Story,” directed by Gabriel Osorio, Chile (11 min.): A sad old bear takes a fantastic mechanical diorama he has created out to street corners. For a coin or two, passers-by can look into the peephole and see the drama-trauma of being captured, caged and taken to a circus — longing to escape and return to his family. The realistic and surrealistic movements are superb in this wistful, original, 2016 best-of-show entry.
• “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos,” Konstantin Bronzit, Russia (15 min.): Two best friends — dreaming since childhood of becoming cosmonauts — have endured the rigorous training together. Hilarious sequences of their weightless and nausea-inducing exercises inside gyroscopes precede the successful launch of one of them, and demise of the other. It’s a kind of “2001” star-child idea in animation, wistful and lovely.
• “World of Tomorrow,” Don Hertzfeldt, U.S. (17 min.): More cosmic debris here, with a nod to Frank Zappa, in this heaviest ontological entry. Little stick-figure Emily is taken on a fantastic tour of her future by a visiting “analyst” monitoring her life’s progress and transitions: “Your time is the Internet. Our time is the Outernet.” The guide reveals unnerving secrets (“We all die horribly”) as well as her own work on the moon, where she fell in love with a rock and sent back depressed poetry. “I’m very proud of my sadness because it means I’m alive,” she says — accompanied by terrific Strauss music from “Rosenkavalier.”
• “Sanjay’s Super Team,” Sanjay Patel, U.S. (7 min.): Pixar animator/character designer Sanjay Patel (“Bug’s Life,” “Ratatouille”) tells his semi-autobiographical tale of a first-generation Indian-American boy whose love of Western pop culture conflicts with his father’s Hindu traditions. Sanjay is absorbed in TV cartoon superheroes and “action figures” until an unexpected encounter with super-Hindu-heroes brings new perspective. Visually dazzling and very sweet.
• “Prologue,” Richard Williams, U.K. (6 min): During the Spartan-Athenian wars of 2,400 years ago, a terrified girl witnesses angry warriors battle each other brutally to the death. No dialogue, just horribly natural grunts and groans accompany the intensely realistic animation of Richard Williams, best known for his work on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and the Oscar-winning “A Christmas Carol.” This one is spellbinding but grim, indeed. Parental warning: The graphic violence and male nudity are not for small kids.
• Four additional bonus five- to nine-minute films:
“If I Was God” (Canada): While dissecting a frog in biology class, a 12-year-old boy speculates about what he would do if he were God.
“The Short Story of a Fox and a Mouse” (France): A hungry fox sets out for a morning meal, hoping for a tasty rodent but finding an extraordinary mouse instead.
“The Loneliest Stoplight” (U.S.). The life and times of a neglected stoplight.
“Catch It” (France): A group of meerkats take care of their beloved fruit near their burrow, but a vulture seriously disturbs them.
Live-action shorts
• “Ave Maria,” Basil Khalil, Palestine/France (15 min): Five nuns living in the West Bank have their routine disrupted when a car carrying a family of Israeli settlers breaks down outside the convent. Unable to use the telephone on the Sabbath, they need the nuns’ help, but the sisters’ vow of silence presents other hurdles. Sweetly funny juxtaposition/dilemma of dueling religious quirks.
• “Shok,” Jamie Donoughue, Kosovo/U.K. (21 min.): In 1988 Kosovo, two young boys are best friends living happily until war engulfs them and daily existence is filled with fear and violence. Manipulated by soldiers, the choices they make jeopardize not only their friendship but their families’ lives. A tragedy, based on true events.
• “Everything Will Be OK,” Patrick Vollrath, Germany/Austria (30 min.): A divorced father devoted to his 8-year-old daughter, Lea, picks her up for their usual weekend together. It seems a lovely normal time until the nervous dad takes her to a passport office, then the airport. As Lea gradually catches on, it becomes truly harrowing and suspenseful. Stupendously well-acted by Simon Schwarz and Julia Pointner.
• “Stutterer,” Benjamin Cleary, U.K./Ireland (12 min.): A lonely, scruffy typographer has an online sort-of romance without revealing the incapacitating speech impediment that keeps him so isolated. Now faced with having to meet his virtual girlfriend in the flesh, he’s understandably freaked out.
• “Day One,” Henry Hughes, U.S. (25 min.): A young, divorced Afghan-American woman joins the military as an interpreter and on her first Afghanistan mission accompanies troops in pursuit of a bomb maker. When they find him, it’s up to her to bridge the huge gender/culture gap and assist his pregnant wife.
